The NSGA released the Team Dealers segment of their bi-annual Cost of Doing Business Survey and according to the new data, average net profit inched up 80 basis points to 2.6% compared to 1.8% 2001. Team dealers showed positive results in return on total assets, which rose 200 basis points to 5.7% in 2003 versus 3.7% in 2001, however, return on net worth fell to 9.2% in 2003 versus 13.5% in 2001, 12.3% in 1999 and 12.1% in 1997.
Just about every metric showed improvement in the team dealer market segment, except operating expenses which went up 50 basis points to 30.2% from 29.7%. Gross margins rose to 32.6% in 2003, up 120 basis points versus 31.4% in 2001.
Tom Doyle, NSGAs VP of Information & Research, said, “Increased payroll and occupancy expenses accounted for the rise in operating costs Improved sales per employee and gross margins were not able to offset this rise.”
The typical team dealer participating in the survey had annual sales of $1.8 million, with the middle 50% of participants having sales of $800,000 to $3.5 million. Sales per sales person rose 6.2% over the past two years to $462,038 from $435,165.
